I can't vote crap on them, but they're nowhere near my favorite band. I like everything up to Zen Arcade pretty well, and about half the songs on New Day Rising are good, then they started sounding like the fucking Lemonheads or something.

whoisalhedges wrote:I don't think there's a moment of filler on New Day Rising -- one of my favorite records ever.

I do think Zen Arcade could've been cut in half, though.

Wow. I feel exactly opposite. I don't really think any of ZA is filler. "How to Skin a Cat", "Whatcha Drinkin'" and Plans I Make" are total throwaways.

MAYBE the first two, if I'm in a short attention span mood... but I fucking adore "Plans I Make."

About 2 years ago, I sat down with my guitar and played out a nice chord progression. Made up some nonsense lyrics to sing along, to be replaced by real lyrics later. I was really excited, because I thought I'd just come up with a killer melody.

Listening to my iPod in the car on the way to work the next day, I came to the realization I'd just written "Celebrated Summer." Shit.

I go back to them occasionally and it surprises me how much I like songs across their whole discography. Starting to come around to Warehouse at last. Admittedly a bloated album but still has some excellent songs on there. 'Could You Be The One?', 'You Look Like You Just Got Back From Somewhere', 'Friend, You've Got Too Fall', 'Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope', 'These Important Years' etc.

Bill Swansea wrote:Filler can't be considered filler if it's enjoyable to listen to though.

Plus there's not THAT much filler, really.

Yeah, filller is probably not the word I want to use, since each song in Zen Arcade is part of a larger narrative, and even those piano interludes and the backwardsy bit of Reoccurring Dreams earlier in the album while not contributing to the narrative contribute to the overall structure of the album as a whole. Mostly I don't enjoy listening to those parts. Then there are the songs that are just plain terrible, like "Somewhere" and "Turn On The News". Musically they're decent, slightly pedestrian rock songs but they have cringe-inducingly bad lyrics.

Ptommydski wrote:'Somewhere' is a pretty good song, though most of Hart's lyrics were dodgy if the truth be told (rare example of a song written by Hart being sung by Mould).

That chorus is jsut awful though, it's the type of shit I would write in my notebooks when I was in middle school and then get embarrassed and throw out before trying to set to music, much less put to tape and press into vinyl and release to the public and play in front of a live audience numerous times.

I actually really like Candy Apple Grey, but I couldn't ever get into Warehouse. Completely appropriate title, though, because the tunes have more of a "singer/songwriter" vibe, which usually doesn't work for me.

How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelette? - George Carlin

Ptommydski wrote:'Somewhere' is a pretty good song, though most of Hart's lyrics were dodgy if the truth be told (rare example of a song written by Hart being sung by Mould).

That chorus is jsut awful though, it's the type of shit I would write in my notebooks when I was in middle school and then get embarrassed and throw out before trying to set to music, much less put to tape and press into vinyl and release to the public and play in front of a live audience numerous times.

Hart could be a pretty terrible lyricist. Truthfully, Somewhere's aren't his worst. As a freshmen in high school I plagarized Charity Chastity Prudence and Hope for a poetry writing assignment that I either forgot or didn't want to do. I chose it because it was bad enough to be believable.

I'm guilty of often not really caring about lyrics (probably why I'm usually in instrumental bands). I typically pay more attention to melody and meter.